Psychology Hacks of Dave & Buster’s
Traditionally, arcades have had to rely on the psychology wrapped into the games themselves to drive profits. But Dave & Buster’s has turned their entire experience into a game that keeps customers spending; and their innovation all revolves around how customers pay for games.
Dave & Buster’s has taken arcade payment to a whole new level with their card system. Here’s essentially how it works: You can’t play any games at all if you don’t have a card. Cards are sold at kiosks, and accept credit cards, which of course makes it easier to spend.
From a conversion standpoint, the kiosk interfaces are very well-designed. Customers are first presented with three dollar amounts that they can fill their cards with, and the minimum amount presented is a hefty $25 - which is a lot of video games.
If you go refuse the recommended amounts, those recommended amounts are highlighted even further on the next screen, with even larger amounts presented as well. Since you’ve already been presented with $25 as the minimum on the previous screen, the $20 option doesn’t look that bad, even though you may have walked up to the machine thinking you’d spend $5.
Once you select a dollar amount, you’re instantly upsold. You’ve already committed to buying some chips, so what’s it hurt to buy a few more? (This is utilizing the foot-in-the-door technique.) It’s a better value, and if you press “no” you’ll miss out on your chance. (This takes advantage of scarcity).”
If you still refuse the up-sell offer, there is yet another smaller up-sell. Notice the powerful language. Supercharge. Yes! Just. More. Contrasting with the bland “No, Thanks” button.
When you’re all done buying your card, you get a real, hefty piece of plastic, just like a credit card. This removes you from the reality of the money you’re spending.
When you go to play games, the values of a game play are very abstract. It turns out that 6.3 “chips” equals about $1.30 on a $10 chip purchase. Also notice that if you play enough chips to get a “Gold” card (1200), you’ll get 10% off all of your games, which is one good reason to keep your card in your wallet - where it will stare at you for years. Another is that the prices of playing games are very unusual so as to leave odd but useless amounts remaining on the card (I now have .7 credits on my card), giving you reasonable cause to come back another time and recharge the card.
Of course the lamest part of any arcade experience is the useless prizes you can redeem the tickets you win for. Not everybody likes stuffed crocodiles. But everybody loves music! This machine will turn your tickets into music purchases, and burn them onto a CD - and you can even hook up your iPod.
As you can see, Dave & Buster’s card payment system ropes their customers into a sophisticated framework that keeps them spending on games. The amazing thing is, they almost didn’t switch to cards.
